Ad-hoc networks allow mobile nodes to form a multi-hop network for peer-to-peer communication. Typical ad-hoc system protocols use a common channel for communication between all nodes. The use of a common channel puts a limitation on the network performance. For example, it has been shown that as the node density increases, the network performance is rapidly degraded due to channel contention. This is because when two nodes in close proximity are communicating, use of a common channel has the effect of preventing multiple surrounding nodes from communicating amongst them. This creates a ripple effect on the congestion in the network. This is illustrated in FIG. 1 where upstream nodes 101-104 are actively communicating with downstream nodes 105-108, respectively. All nodes 101-109 utilize the same channel (frequency/timeslot/code). As is evident all communication passes through bottleneck node 109. This bottleneck adds appreciable latency to the system, preventing multiple nodes 101-108 from adequately communicating between each other. Therefore a need exists for a method and apparatus for congestion relief an ad-hoc communication system that alleviates congestion caused by bottleneck nodes.